Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Matt Moylan Talks Iwamoto's X Series Manga (Updated)

Reader Flame put the question to UDON's managing editor, Matt Moylan, about whether or not UDON plans on translating Yoshihiro Iwamoto's famed Rockman X manga series, citing that like Ariga's Megamix, there has been a great demand to see stories come stateside. Matt's answer:

"It is something we will think about after seeing how well the Megamix and ZX mangas sell. If these series do initially well, next we would do Ariga's Gigamix, and then think more seriously about Iwamoto's X manga.There are a few things to consider.

1)it is a big investment, as Iwamoto's X manga runs something like 12 tankobons(manga volumes)2) his art is pretty retro, but there are people who like that style3) price - since the X series is less popular than the classic mega man, and the art style might not be for everyone, we'd expect this series might not sell as well, so we might have to raise the price a little if we did this series.

I have checked out some of it though. It's definitely a little more old school that our other manga series, but it has its own charm. Story wise I'm afraid I haven't read enough to comment yet. "

Personally, I'd love to see these in English, but I can see where Matt's coming from on this one. So, what say you?

UPDATE: Matt has come through with a follow-up:

"If we did do the X mangas, I'm pretty sure we would do them in the 5 mega-volume collection format. But even in this format, there would still be a lot of investment needed.

By investment meant I meant not only the cost of licensing fees, but also the cost of translation, lettering, printing etc. Even if we licensed only the first MMX mega book as a test run, that book is huge, like almost 600 pages (I have a copy on my desk here actually heh). Just the first volume be about as much work as the whole Megamix series. So there's that to consider.

On MMX's popularity, there are definitely tons of X fans out there, I know, and they are a dedicated bunch. But as a spinoff it's always going to be less popular than the core series. We can see this with our two mm complete works books. Released at the same time, same price, similar contents, MM Classic OCW is selling better than MMX OCW. Neither sells BAD, but there is a gap between them for sure. So when thinking of X manga, we have to assume that sales on it VS the classic Ariga stuff will have a similar sales gap. Also a longer series with a more expensive price point per volume (regardless of page count) affects sales as well. It's a much tougher sell to the casual buyer.

But even with all that, it's not to say any of this is a deal breaker, it's all just things we have to keep in mind."

28 comments:

It's also the most "adult" Rockman manga out there, with a lot of death, blood, cursing, serious emotions, vaguely sexual overtones and religious symbolism. I can't help but imagine that those don't really help its case to being imported, either.

Remember how there was some discussion as to why UDON was using the 2003 editions of Rockman Megamix instead of the 2009 editions? Something about that's how long it took to get licensing, etc? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a long time to wait. It took Ariga less time to MAKE the comic than it did to license it. :1

They won't print it at all unless they have a guaranteed market to sell it in. If they can't make profit, they have no incentive to do anything. Saying that you would "refuse to buy it" actually just tells them it's not worth their time and money.

I'd definitely be interested, but the price hike might be a cause for concern. If I remember correctly, the average manga in America in a store like Barnes and Noble usually costs about...$8.00 or so. I think. It might be more. Regardless, if the price is still right, even with the price hike, I'd still buy them.Now here's the key: WILL these manga go through retail stores like Barnes and Noble? Or will they be sold exculively through online stores like Amazon?

I'd definitely buy it. I imported the X4 and X(5? 6?) books as well as the Zero manga. I've also seen some random pages of X1, X2 and X3. I'm more psyched about these coming over than any other series.Though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't look forward to the Zero mangas being in English. :P I don't care how many people whine and complain about them.. I liked it, so nyah.

@Flame: Like or dislike have nothing to do with it. Nothing from the Megaman X line of games has been released in years. Only the hardcore are still familiar with the series. Unless these books are released in conjuncture with a new Megaman X game they'll likely sell poorly. That would be used as an argument against further such products being released in the States. There's a time and a place for everything. This ain't the time.

If they were going to bring the X mangas over, they should use the 5 large volume Fukkan re-release compilations, like ShadowNeko suggested. But it sounds like they won't/aren't even considering doing that, even though the "12 tankobons" Matt's referring to don't even include the final chapters of X4. They would rather release a ton of small volumes than a few huge ones, apparently. I am not a fan that Udon split the Rockman & X Official Complete Works into two books with each costing as much as what the original volume did. But that just seems to be the way they do business.

Very little of anything not Star force or BN has been released here for a long time. toys notwithstanding.classic is the only series right now getting a revival via 9 and 10.And Complete works was both X and Classic. (apparently XOCW doesnt count?)

By that logic, then Ariga's mangas shouldnt be released either, since nothing Classic series related outside of 9 and 10 has come out in a long time either.

i understand where Matt's coming from, and Im not specifying NOW, I just would like to see them, sooner or later, in english in the states. I mean, it would be a long wait either way, since they have to see how Megamix and Gigamix do here. then they MIGHT think about it.

also, side note- But I also agree on the compilation volumes.Although they likely dont want to do that because the price might be high as it is, and making BIGGER volumes would only make the price higher... But Ill ask him bout that actually...

I can buy the new version (thick volume) of Iwamoto's X comics anytime I want. However, the old version (thin volume) is very rare these days. If UDON can translate this comics, I wish they will release the old version (just like they did on Ariga's comics.)

I'm commenting here because I know at least I'll have an audience of one- Sir Protodude.

My response to this old post: *chucks wallet vigorously at screen*

I'm "reading" some scans of the manga that are online, practicing my hiragana reading. I can look up some words on Denshi Jisho and get some actual meaning out of a few text bubbles, but most of it is...

Man, it would be a real treat to read these in english. Even with lady Zero.